The World Trade Center

1/3/2001 12:00 AM
World Trade Center

The World Trade Center was conceived in the early 1960's by
David Rockefeller as a way to revitalize the dying downtown
business district where he, coincidentally, owned an extensive
amount of property. The para-governmental organization
The Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey began planning in 1962 and despite the community
opposition that accompanies any large development in NYC, architect
Minoru Yamasaki's plan for two huge bland towers was approved in 1966.

To create the 16-acre site, 5 streets were closed and
164 buildings were siezed by eminent domain and destroyed, including Radio Row,
a seedy but lively street of electronics stores. The 1.2 million yards
of earth excavated to create the reinforced hole for the foundation
("The Bathtub") were used to fill an area of shoreline on
the Hudson River to create Battery Park city. A total of 10,000 people
worked on the towers and 60 people died during construction.

The north tower opened in December of 1970. The south tower opened
in January of 1972. The complex was dedicated in April 1973. They
were briefly the tallest buildings in the world until the Sears Tower
in Chicago opened in May 1973.
(reference)

On September 11, 2001, American Airlines flight 11 was hijacked
and flown into the north tower at 8:45AM. At 9:03AM, United Airlines
flight 175 was flown into the south tower. At 9:50AM, the south tower
collapsed, followed by the north tower at 10:29.

The resulting fire and debris closed much of lower Manhattan
for many weeks. But as the area began to reopen, large crowds
wanted to visit the site and the city erected a viewing platform on
Fulton street. While all tourist destinations in NYC were affected
economically by the 9/11/01 attacks, downtown destinations like the
South Street Seaport were especially hard hit. With the erection of
the viewing platform, someone came up with the great idea of distributing
tickets for the platform at the South Street Seaport. With the tremendous
demand for tickets, traffic at the Seaport jumped appreciably as well.

On January 21, 2002, I visited the site and snapped the following photos.

1/21/2002 12:00 AM
January 21, 2002 looking west from Fulton St. platform

1/21/2002 12:00 AM
The ticket booth at the south street seaport

1/21/2002 12:00 AM
A platform pass

1/21/2002 12:00 AM
The queueing area: Fulton at Broadway, just east of the WTC

1/21/2002 12:00 AM
The viewing area was in front of a church that was used as a holding area for the WTC workers

1/21/2002 12:00 AM
A sign giving information on the church

1/21/2002 12:00 AM
The ramp up

1/21/2002 12:00 AM
The ramp down

On July 17, 2004, I revisited the site which had been largely cleared
of debris and construction materials. The Port Authority had
built a temporary station for the WTC PATH train station that
descended to the tracks in the "Bathtub". The temporary
pedestrian walkways over the West Street give an especially good
view of the area. In it's barren state, the area seems strangely small.